I'm certainly not new to computers (or a dummy) but I am new to TI 11. I downloaded the trial to determine its suitability as a replacement for Norton Save and Restore (NSR), which I'm currently using to make backups (previously I used Ghost, and before that, Powerquest Drive Image). I get the feeling that TI 11 is a more 'respected' backup solution and I'd like to buy the product if it can replicate (exactly or very nearly) how I currently use NSR.

So if anyone can assist me by answering the following I'd be very grateful. I have read the help screens and parts of the manual but I'm still struggling to work this out for myself

My primary hard drive is split into partitions C: - H: and with NSR I have 2 backup sets scheduled to run:

1. Backup of C:\, D:\, E:\, G:\, H:\ - backs up all partitions (except F: which is just used for ripping DVDs etc.) at 11:00 every Sunday. Full backup, only keep latest one.
2. Backup of C:\, D:\, H:\ - doesn't backup E: and G: as they contain the most data and I want a quick backup - this runs at 20:00 every Wednesday. Again this is a full backup and only the latest is kept.

Therefore I have TWO backups for C:, D: and H: at any one time and just 1 of E: and G: from the previous Sunday.

I've set up the same schedule in TI 11 and chose the recommended option of differential backups, with a full backup after 1 differential backup - I thought this would mean that every other week I get a full backup and the weeks in between I get a differential backup - is that correct?

Currently I have set the backup location to have unlimited backups but a quota of 460 Gb which is just less than the disk size of 465 Gb. Do I also need to set the no. of backups to 2, or will it be 4 as I have 2 scheduled tasks? I'm confused! With NSR I told it I only wanted 1 backup kept, but that applied to the individual backup set rather than the total in the backup location. It's not exactly clear if TI 11 works the same way!

Also I was testing the Backup of C:\, D:\, H:\ last night in TI 11 and as 3 backups had been made (manually by me) it consolidated them into 2 (at that point I had a backup limit set!). The actual backup seemed to take about 13 mins but the consolidation took over an hour! Is this normal?

Anyway, hope the above isn't too lengthy - if you need any further info then please get in touch!

What is your reason for wanting to leave NSR? I missed it if it was in your post.

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Hmm, well apart from "I get the feeling that TI 11 is a more 'respected' backup solution", I don't suppose I really said did I?!!?

I suppose it's just that I've had problems restoring from NSR backups before, in that:

1. I bought Norton SystemWorks 2007 which included NSR, but the Symantec Recovery Disc 2007 doesn't boot up on my PC so I have to use the previous 2006 version - which concerns me somewhat!
2. The last couple of times I had to restore my C: drive from a backup, it didn't work properly unless I first formatted my C: partition (if I tried restoring over the top, I ended up with no taskbar and various other problems, basically Windows was unusable!)

So if I did want to ditch NSR and move to TI 11, could it do everything I want it to do?

All my drives are single partition and I do only full backups manually. Plus I still use version 9 so I'm not in a position to advise you. But I do know from reading the forum that Ver 11 comes with its own set of bugs. Whether one or more will affect you I don't know.

- Create two backup locations in different folders, with set limit of 1 backup to keep;
- Create a task for weekly (on a chosen day and time) creation of a full backup of C:\, D:\, E:\, G:\, H:\ to the first backup location;
- Create a task for weekly (on a chosen day and time) creation of a full backup of C:\, D:\, H:\ to the second backup location.

That setup will let you keep the amount of backups you described.

The number of backups counted by a number of points in time saved. So, every full, incremental and differential backup will count as one, even if any of them is created in several files (for example, when the option to split archives is set).

I hadn't thought of using 2 separate backup locations, so that is something I will consider doing. What about if I just had one backup location but chose 2 as the limit for the number of backups - would that have the same effect?

Please advise.

P.S. I also sent my original question to Support via the website, so if you choose to reply on this forum instead then my support request could probably be ignored!

Using one backup locations with limit of 2 backups would have the same effect as long as there are no failures. But in case one backup fails, and you don't notice it before the next (other) backup runs, you will be left with two subsequent backups of the same task and no backup of the other (failed) one. With 2 different locations there will always be 1 archive for each respective task.

Using one backup locations with limit of 2 backups would have the same effect as long as there are no failures. But in case one backup fails, and you don't notice it before the next (other) backup runs, you will be left with two subsequent backups of the same task and no backup of the other (failed) one. With 2 different locations there will always be 1 archive for each respective task.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov

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Hi Marat, thanks again for your reply - and Happy Easter!

Yes, of course, that makes sense. I am very diligent at checking that my backups have completed successfully, so I may just stick with 1 backup location for now, but I can always change to 2 locations if required in the future.